by Wayne Adair, Hamilton
I suspect most folks reading this are old enough to remember the history of the Republican Party 10 years ago when dishonesty was a death knell for a candidate seeking public office, not a campaign strategy as it is now in the dark days of Trump’s GOP domination.
Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy has certainly studied at the foot of the orange expert in dishonesty and has taken those lessons to heart. I reference his May 4 opinion piece in the Ravalli Republic which is just that – opinion. Factually, it is riddled with more holes than Bonnie and Clyde’s Ford after the ambush.
I plan to patch some of those holes. I can’t address them all since providing facts takes more time and space than spinning fallacy, but I will do my best.
Sheehy parrots Trump by saying the investigation into Russia collusion is a hoax and pushed for years without evidence. Not so.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was assigned to investigate this and found there was extensive coordination between the Trump campaign and forces inside Russia. The investigation resulted in 37 indictments, seven guilty pleas or convictions and compelling evidence that Trump obstructed justice on multiple occasions. Furthermore, Mueller said he chose not to recommend charging Donald Trump in this case because of his status as a sitting president. Mueller testified before Congress, July 24, 2019, that when Trump leaves office, obstruction of justice charges would be appropriate. And there is much more. Read it yourself: (www.scslaw.org).
Sheehy claims, inaccurately, that Tester had the opportunity to fire Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. A senator alone has no power to remove a Cabinet Secretary. After the impeachment in the House, the Senate voted to stop the process since Secretary Mayorkas had clearly not committed an impeachable offense. A policy difference is not a high crime or misdemeanor.
Yet another false claim by Sheehy is that the Senate, with Tester’s support, voted to allow undocumented immigrants to be counted in the census. I can find no evidence of such a vote in the Senate, but HR 7109 was introduced in the House and is intended to count only citizens in the future. Only problem is, the U.S Constitution says clearly that all persons living in the U.S., citizens or not, are to be counted every 10 years. Trump also tried to change how the Census works, but the U.S. Supreme Court shut down the effort (Politico.com, July 11, 2019). Don’t like the U.S. Constitution? Amend it, but we can’t just ignore the parts we don’t like.
And let us not forget Sheehy’s claim that Tester voted against authorizing the Keystone XL Pipeline. A Republican congressman from North Dakota did introduce HR 684 to ensure the Keystone XL pipeline would be constructed but according to Congress.gov, the legislation went nowhere beyond introduction in the House. Sen. Tester had no chance to vote on that bill one way or another. But Tester has been a vocal supporter of the project since its proposal in 2008. Upon its cancellation, Tester wrote, “I am bitterly disappointed to learn that construction of the Keystone XL pipeline will no longer be moving forward. I supported this project for years because of the good-paying jobs and tax revenue it would have created…” (Tester.senate.gov, June 6, 2021).
Sheehy’s exaggeration, deception and misinformation go on and on. But I think I have made my point.
The Republican Senate candidate must think Montana voters are stupid, gullible or both. Obviously, he would have us believe a 2012 bullet wound in his arm and a 2015 hiking injury would look the same.
They would not.